Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759-1813) - Sonata pel Organo, Op.39 (1788)
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Composer: Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759-1813)
Work: Sonata pel Organo, Op.39 (1788)
Performers: M. SeibeI (organ)
Drawing: Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867) - Stage set with figures
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2jJmKfU
Further info: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23174
Listen free: https://www.free-scores.com/sheetmusic?p=azxYuwdyTA
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Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab
(Berlin, 27 February 1759 - Berlin, 19 August 1813)
German music publisher and composer. From 1768 to 1775 he performed in student concerts at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, playing keyboard concertos by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach. He studied with J.F. Agricola from 1773 (mainly the keyboard) and with C.F.C. Fasch in 1776–8 (mainly composition). In 1779 his father, who had acquired Berlin’s oldest printing firm, had a stroke, and Rellstab was forced to step into the business and to abandon plans for study with C.P.E. Bach. Soon he enlarged the business, adding a new printing press, a publishing firm and a music shop where keyboard (both English and German), string and wind instruments, musical clocks and tuning forks were sold, and where from 1792, harpsichords, pianos, harps and violin bows were manufactured. In 1783 he established a music lending library, and his firm issued music prints at least as early as 1785. In 1787 he acquired G.L. Winter’s publishing firm and in the same year instituted a series of weekly public subscription ‘Concerts for Connoisseurs and Amateurs’ at the English House, a series he was forced by financial necessity in 1788 to continue as private fortnightly concerts at members’ homes. The concerts were often attended by Fasch, Reichardt, Zelter and others, and included both sacred and secular works such as Bach’s Magnificat and Gluck’s Alceste. Unfortunate political conditions forced the temporary cancellation of the concerts in 1806 and the sales of many instruments in 1808; in 1812 the lending library almost ceased to function, and the press was permanently shut down. Rellstab continued selling some music and wind instruments, giving lessons in singing, declamation, composition and continuo realization. In his views on theory, he backed Marpurg over Kirnberger and hence maintained a close adherence to the tenets of Rameau regarding chord generation. From 1808 to 1813 he was critic for the Vossische Zeitung, for which he wrote 155 reviews and 155 other articles.
Recent scholarship has again drawn attention to the dispute between Rellstab and C.P.E. Bach in 1785. Rellstab claimed to have acquired the rights to Bach's keyboard sonatas ‘with altered repeats’ w50 (h126, 136–40; 1760) from G.L. Winter's widow. Bach, who had invested money with G.L. Winter in a joint venture for their sales, had later at least partially settled with Winter's widow and received some of the unsold copies. He claimed that the sonatas could not be republished without his release and offered his copies to Rellstab at a low price. Rellstab declined, infuriating Bach by replying that he planned to print 300 copies by September and that Bach could become a partner if he advanced a printing fee. To punish Rellstab, Bach sent his copies to Breitkopf, urging the Leipzig publisher to issue them as soon as possible. Breitkopf's edition followed closely on the heels of Rellstab's and must have deprived the younger man of anticipated profits, although after Bach's death, Rellstab still professed great admiration for the master. Rellstab’s eldest daughter, Caroline Rellstab (Berlin, 18 April 1793 - Breslau, 17 Feb 1813), was a singer noted for her extraordinary range extending to f'''. She sang at Breslau from 1811, and was particularly well known for her role as the Queen of Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. His son Ludwig Rellstab was a poet and an important music critic. #ClassicalMusic